Chief Executive Officer | Northeast Treatment Centers (NET)

About Northeast Treatment Centers

Northeast Treatment Centers (NET) offers support and hope to individuals and families at times of great stress in their lives. Founded in 1970, NET is a Philadelphia-based nonprofit that has served children, youth, and families across the region for more than five decades. NET operates through its subsidiary, NET Community Care, as a Community Umbrella Agency under contract with the Philadelphia Department of Human Services, delivers a continuum of juvenile justice programs in partnership with the Philadelphia Juvenile Probation Office, and provides foster care, adoption, case management, violence prevention, and family support services across multiple sites in the city.

In May 2026, NET and JEVS Human Services jointly announced a service integration plan in which NET’s behavioral health services in Philadelphia and Delaware will be integrated into JEVS. The plan was developed collaboratively with Community Behavioral Health and reflects a shared commitment to continuity of care for clients and continued employment for staff. JEVS, an 85-year-old Philadelphia institution, brings deep operational capacity and a complementary mission. Both organizations will continue to advance their missions following the integration, which is expected to complete by the end of calendar year 2026.

With this integration, NET will continue to focus on the trauma-informed social service programs in which it has the deepest community roots and the strongest outcomes. NET 2.0 will operate at approximately $32 million in annual revenue across Philadelphia-based locations, carries no debt, and is largely program-funded rather than fee-for-service. The continuing service portfolio includes case management, community engagement, foster care, residential care, adoption, juvenile justice services, violence prevention programs, parenting programs, and child welfare services. NET enters its next chapter with operating surplus, balance sheet stability, a strong and tenured senior team, and an engaged Board of Directors.

Position Responsibilities

Strategic Vision and Leadership

  • Lead NET into its next chapter with a clear, credible vision for the organization’s role in Philadelphia child welfare, juvenile justice, and social services.
  • Bring sector knowledge and practitioner credibility to representation of NET in city, state, and partner settings.

  • Develop and execute a multi-year strategic plan in partnership with the Board, building on the foundation of the recent organizational refocus.
  • Sustain NET’s reputation for high- quality outcomes, regulatory compliance, and trauma-informed practice across all service lines.

Financial Stewardship

  • Partner closely with the Chief Financial Officer and the Board’s finance leadership to maintain disciplined fiscal management and operating practice.
  • Build, retain, and support a strong finance function, including the recruitment and onboarding of the next Chief Financial Officer in coordination with the parallel search.
  • Maintain reserves and balance sheet discipline appropriate to a program-funded organization of NET’s scale.External Engagement and Public Representation
  • Serve as the primary public face of NET, building visibility and credibility across the City of Philadelphia, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and within the regional human services community.
  • Cultivate and sustain relationships with the Philadelphia Department of Human Services, the Juvenile Probation Office, the Mayor’s Office, City Council, and other public partners on whom NET’s work depends.
  • Represent NET in the regional philanthropic community, with peer organizations, and in the policy and advocacy conversations that shape children’s services in Philadelphia.Resource Development and Growth
  • Lead NET’s development of a meaningful philanthropic function, beginning with foundation and institutional grant-making and building toward individual donor cultivation over time.
  • Identify and pursue entrepreneurial opportunities to extend NET’s case management and family-support capabilities into adjacent social service domains.
  • Evaluate geographic expansion into surrounding Pennsylvania counties where NET’s child welfare and family services capabilities can address identified community needs.
  • Diversify NET’s revenue base across government contracts, foundation grants, and philanthropy.

Organizational and Team Leadership

  • Lead a strong, tenured senior team and continue NET’s tradition of growing leaders from within.
  • Partner with the Board to evolve governance and engage in board development, recruitment, and committee structure.
  • Maintain NET’s culture of quality, accountability, and respect for the communities the organization serves.

Critical Skills & Qualifications

 

  • Minimum of ten years of progressive senior leadership experience in nonprofit, public sector, or comparable mission-driven organizations.
  • Demonstrated experience
    leading multi-program
    organizations of comparable
    scale, with full operational and financial accountability.
  • Substantive grounding in child welfare, juvenile justice, foster care, or closely related human services work, with the credibility to represent NET in front of city officials, regulators, and partner organizations.
  • Strong financial acumen, with a demonstrated ability to read financial statements, partner with finance leadership, and exercise judgment on operating and capital decisions.
  • Demonstrated success cultivating external relationships across government, philanthropy, and community partners. Prior visibility in Philadelphia or the broader Delaware Valley is strongly preferred.
  • Track record in nonprofit resource development, including foundation cultivation, government grants, and the early stages of individual donor engagement.
  • Bachelor’s degree required; advanced degree in social work, public administration, business, public health, or a related field strongly preferred.
  • Demonstrated commitment to equity, inclusion, and culturally responsive leadership.

Personal Characteristics

  • A builder, not a fixer or a steward. Drawn to constructing the next chapter rather than restoring the last one or maintaining a legacy untouched.
  • Comfortable with focused scale. Sees a $32 million mission-focused social services organization as a platform for impact and growth, not as a step toward something larger elsewhere.
  • Genuinely energized by fundraising. Not just willing to do it. The next CEO must want to build the development function NET has never had.
  • Politically literate in Philadelphia. Reads City Hall dynamics intuitively, understands how DHS, the Juvenile Probation Office, and CBH relate, and operates with appropriate discretion across constituencies.
  • Equity-centered with cultural humility. Brings deep respect for the families and neighborhoods NET serves and for the staff who do the work.
  • Long-horizon and emotionally durable. Sees the role as a five-to-seven-year arc. The integration year will demand steadiness; the rebuild years will demand persistence.

APPLY

  • For more information regarding this leadership opportunity, or to apply, please contact Criterion Search Group at administrator@criterionsg.com or 610-581-0590.